Our daughter Sarah and our granddaughter Izabell were able to come for a recent visit. It was a great joy for us to have them with us for a couple of weeks. They spent some time with us and then Peggy and the girls traveled down to Navojoa to spend some time with the other grandparents. I rode the bus down a few days later on the 22nd to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary together. Peggy and I thank God for His goodness to us in life and we thank God for our family.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Family Visit
Our daughter Sarah and our granddaughter Izabell were able to come for a recent visit. It was a great joy for us to have them with us for a couple of weeks. They spent some time with us and then Peggy and the girls traveled down to Navojoa to spend some time with the other grandparents. I rode the bus down a few days later on the 22nd to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary together. Peggy and I thank God for His goodness to us in life and we thank God for our family.
We have rented the bodega (warehouse) for use as our official church building. As we mentioned earlier, it needed a lot of cleaning. The whole family joined in and Ezra and I put in a lot of hours. I purchased an extending pressure washer wand to use with the pressure washer and rented some scaffolding and washed the unit in and out from the roof to the floor.
Our thanks to God for His safety as neither of us fell or walked off the scaffolding. My back was severely out of place for a few days but all of that is now just a memory.
Our next task is to repaint the front of the building, keeping the dark blue as it is but adding a light blue in place of the white. The current color combination although it looks good is the theme colors of the number two beer in Mexico. Task two will be to add glass doors behind the sliding metal door on the front of the building. Task three will be to begin to divide the unit up on the inside for use in Sunday School classes and a sanctuary.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Investing in Future Ministry:
"There is no investment in missions equal to that of training nationals"Since we have been here in Mexico we have been honored to be part of training others here in Mexico for the work of the ministry. One of the Bible Institutes that we have been privileged to have a small part in is the Instituto Bautista Sonora (IBSON). This is a work of the Templo Bautista Sahuaro of Hermosillo, Sonora and Pastor John Perez.This past weekend they had their graduation of five seniors and we were invited to be present. Pastor Perez is doing a tremendous work there in Hermosillo and we look forward to seeing how God uses these graduates for His honor and glory in the future.
Monday, June 1, 2009
"as a thief in the night"
This past Thursday night we experienced our first episode of robbery here in Mexico. I woke up Friday morning to discover that our locked gate (still locked) was open and Ezra's four wheeler was nowhere to be found. We called the police and filed all the forms at the three separate offices downtown. We are told that they caught the thief that morning and had the four wheeler in possession but due the processing of all of it we did not get the four wheeler back till today (Monday). Thankfully without any extreme harm.The reason I bring this incident up is to help you remember to pray not only for me and Peggy but for our children. Dad and Mom may be following the call of God on their lives but the children also end up living in foreign lands and live just as disoriented if not more. Thankfully, Ezra was looking at it and talking to me from the perspective about how God has His hand in all of this for good and who might just be saved through it all!
A Location for the Work
I have spoken with the owner of the bodega (warehouse) in the picture and as of Wednesday we will have this unit rented for use as the start of the work here in Magdalena. This unit is an open warehouse with a built in one bedroom efficiency apartment and separate men and women's bathrooms. It will take a lot of cleaning and then a lot of work to make it serviceable but I believe that it will make for a nice location. It has no parking of its own but has street parking and no other businesses close by for parking competition. We are excited with the prospects of having a building and with the possibility of getting information, tracts and the gospel out with our name and location.
Thank you for praying for us - all of us.